What is
Breast Thermography?

Breast
thermography is a 15 minute non invasive test of physiology. It
is a valuable procedure for alerting your doctor to changes that
can indicate early stage breast disease.

The
benefit of breast thermography is that it offers the opportunity
of earlier detection of breast disease than has been possible through
breast self examination, doctor examination or mammography alone.

Thermography
can detect the subtle physiologic changes that accompany breast
pathology, whether it is cancer, fibrocystic disease, an infection
or a vascular disease. Your doctor can then plan accordingly and
lay out a careful program to further diagnose and /or MONITOR you
during and after any treatment.

Normal

Good thermal symmetry with no suspicious vascular patterns or significant
thermal findings.

Fibrocystic
Changes

The
very significant vascular activity in the left breast justified
clinical correlation and close monitoring which returned an opinion
of fibrocystic changes taking place. These changes can be monitored
thermographically at regular intervals until a stable baseline is
established and is reliable enough for annual comparison.

Early
Stage Malignant tumor

This
is the specific area of a small DCIS. We can see the vascular feed
and the discreet area of hypothermia that is displacing the surrounding
hyperthermia.

Thermography
is a painless, non invasive, state of the art clinical test without
any exposure to radiation and is used as part of an early detection
program which gives women of all ages the opportunity to increase
their chances of detecting breast disease at an early stage. It
is particularly useful for women under 50 where mammography is less
effective.

Thermography's
role in breast cancer and other breast disorders is to help in early
detection and monitoring of abnormal physiology and the establishment
of risk factors for the development or existence of cancer. When
used with other procedures the best possible evaluation of breast
health is made.

This
test is designed to improve chances for detecting fast-growing,
active tumors in the intervals between mammographic screenings or
when mammography is not indicated by screening guidelines for women
under 50 years of age.

All
patients thermograms (breast images) are kept on record and form
a baseline for all future routine evaluations.

This
patient's thermograms have remained stable for two years. These
patterns are like a thermal fingerprint which will only change if
pathology develops.

Baseline

3
Month Follow-up

First
Annual

Second
Annual

With
the new ultra-sensitive, high resolution digital infrared cameras
available today a technology that has been developing over the past
20 years is now becoming more accessible.

Thermography
as a physiologic test, demonstrates heat patterns that are strongly
indicative of breast abnormality, the test can detect subtle changes
in breast temperature that indicate a variety of breast diseases
and abnormalities and once abnormal heat patterns are detected in
the breast, follow-up procedures including mammography are necessary
to rule out or properly diagnose cancer and a host of other breast
diseases such as fibrocystic syndrome, Pagets disease, etc.

Canadian
researchers recently found that infrared imaging of breast cancers
could detect minute temperature variations related to blood flow
and demonstrate abnormal patterns associated with the progression
of tumors. These images or thermograms of the breast were positive
for 83% of breast cancers compared to 61% for clinical breast examination
alone and 84% for mammography.

By
performing thermography years before conventional mammography, a
selected patient population at risk can be monitored more carefully,
and then by accurately utilize mammography or ultrasound as soon
as is possible to detect the actual lesion - (once it has grown
large enough and dense enough to be seen on mammographic film),
can increase the patients treatment options and ultimately improve
the outcome.

It
is in this role that thermography provides its most practical benefit
to the general public and to the medical profession. It is certainly
an adjunct to the appropriate usage of mammography and not a competitor.
In fact, thermography has the ability to identify patients at the
highest risk and actually increase the effective usage of mammographic
imaging procedures.

Until
such time as a cure has been found for this terrible disease, progress
must be made in the fields of early detection and risk evaluation
coupled with sound clinical decision making.

Thermography,
with its non-radiation, non-contact and low-cost basis has been
clearly demonstrated to be a valuable and safe early risk marker
of breast pathology, and an excellent case management tool for the
ongoing monitoring and treatment of breast disease when used under
carefully controlled clinical protocols.